You know how America’s cuisine comes from just about everywhere, and then they Americanize it? 

Chicago is famous for a few things, but particularly meat. I think the meat packing industry was big there? Anyway, deep dish pizza is a Chicago thing, and “Vienna hot dogs” are another Chicago thing. 

So some fun facts. A lot of the stereotypical American foods are actually often German. 

Hot dogs are also called wieners, which makes a lot of children giggle. But “Wien” is the German name for Vienna, and all over the German speaking world there are sausages named after cities or regions where they’re specialized. 

Therefore a “Wiener” is a sausage in the Vienna style, or more specifically it’d be called a Wienerwurst. 

Since Wurst is the word for sausage, that’s why “Wiener Schnitzel” doesn’t actually involve sausages at all. It’s a schnitzel in the Vienna style. 

Americanization takes the emphasis in a weird way. Bratwurst is a white sausage that’s made for frying, or “braten” which is the verb for frying. But in America, the colloquial name is “Brat.” So Americans will ask if you want a Brat, not a Wurst, which makes sense in America but sounds very weird if you know German. 

The more you know. 

Someone pointed out to me that what makes German special, compared to other languages, is its relationship with its dialects. When you travel across German speaking Europe you will hear distinct and separate accents and dialects of German spoken within each region. Across Switzerland you have Zurituutsch and Wallisertuutsch. In Germany you have Sachsisch and Schwabisch. 

But nevertheless, there is “High German” or Hochdeutsch, which is the ideal “clean” German that everyone can understand. When a Sachse talks to a Bayer, if their accents are too difficult (and if they get along in the first place) they will speak Hochdeutsch. 

To my knowledge, no other language has this. The closest I can think of is Indonesian. 

Indonesia is also a collection of many, many cultures, each with their own languages. There is significant difference between Javanese and Sundanese, though they share some similarities. But Bahasa Indonesia serves as an umbrella language for everyone to have in common. 

The interesting thing that both German and Indonesian share is a lack of inhibitions about absorbing English words and Englishisms into their languages. There is no taboo in speaking Denglish, or Indlish. it’s a little funny to say “Wir hangen aus” but everyone understands it. Most languages are similarly pragmatic. 

One of the few languages that I know of which vehemently fights against this is French. The French are rather famous for stubbornly resisting Anglo-Saxon culture (and the Anglo-Saxon world in general) and for them it’s generally a terrible crime to import English words or English sayings into their language. It happens, but they try their best to resist it. 

Aren’t languages just so fun? 

Gegen Knäste und die Gesellschaft die sie braucht

or

Against prisons and the society they require

I’m also fascinated by thoughtful graffiti. 

…und als ihnen ihre Tempel nicht mehr genügten, bauten sie neue, grösser as jemals zuvor.

Or:

… and as their temples were no longer satisfactory, they built new ones, larger than ever before. 

Dear McDonalds, 

I know it rhymes, but… really?

One of my challenges, that I was never taught in any of my language courses, is in German initialisms. 

English does this a lot. We write “etc.”, “eg.” and so on and take it as given, but there are a lot in German, possibly more than I commonly find in English. 

“u.s.w.” means “und so weiter” which works like “etc.” 

“z.B” means “zum Beispiel” so literally “eg.” though I don’t know how “eg.” becomes “for example.” 

“d.h.” means “das heisst”, in English which works like “and this is called…” or “and this means…” 

But there are all these other ones I still just don’t know… 

I just wanted to say that one of the most endearing things I’ve seen in a while is an article I just saw in the seasonal magazine from the University of Zürich. 

Well I think it’s seasonal. I just received it, but it says “#04/12”. Makes sense this way. 

Switzerland is a country with 4 languages, of which German is the largest proportion. But among the German speaking cantons, there are several different accents and dialects. Züritüütsch is probably the more understandable to anyone with some knowledge of German, but general consensus agrees that Wallis (in French ‘Valais’) has the absolute worst, most incomprehensible, and strangest form of Swiss-German. 

So one article here is a comparison and response article, titled “Ach, du bist Walliser. Das heisst Sina, Freyinger und Fendant!” with a response under “Stimmts? Ein Walliser atwortet.” The first article seems, from a casual glance, to suggest that Walliser students should try to fit in more, rather than just hang out together and stick to Walliser things like Fendant, Cholera (a Walliser pastry, not the disease) and so on. 

The first part of the article is written in Hochdeutsch, more or less. The response is, however, written in Wallisertüütsch. There is no technical written form of Swiss German, but people write it anyway because German pronunciation of its alphabet and phonetics is quite consistent and standardized. 

The second begins with:

Ja, ich bi en Walliser und seg mer ja nit Grüezi. Denn di Grüezinji sid ier da, wa nördisch va de Alpe läbet. Es tüet scho weh, wenn mo am Sunntagabond schich ine volle Zug richtig üsserschwiiz quätscht und z Land wa Fendant und Raclette fliesst, hiner schich laht. Da, wa Chircha und Staat no Hand in Hand gehnt, wo di Vetterlji-Wirtschaft no nit va der Korruption verdrängt wordo isch und wa immer d Sunna schiint. 

I will award a million cool points to any non-Swiss person who can translate that well. 

Live long enough in Switzerland, and your German will start to change. I think it’s natural, like the way my English changes depending on whether I’m in the US or in England, or even between when I’m among Americans and among others. 

Among Swiss people I use the word “luegen” instead of “schauen.” I pronounce things the way they do too. 

When asking if a seat on the train or bus is empty, I say “isch da no’ fräi?” instead of the hochdeutsch “Ist dieses Platz noch frei?”

This is the case with all the other foreigners I know who learned their German, or at least applied it most, while here. We say “feuf” instead of “funf” and “nün” instead of “neun.” 

It’s just a matter of adapting. 

Wir Sind Helden - Bring mich nach Hause

Ich brauche einen Freund mit weiten Schwingen,
Der mich heil nach Hause bringen kann,
Durch die Dunkelheit, den Wind, den Regen
Um mich dann vor meine Tür zu legen
Und dort erst auf der Schwelle will ich verbluten,
Wenn ich still bin, soll der Regen jede Zelle fluten,
Ich brauch, ich brauch, ich brauche Nichts

So I learned a new word. 

20mins.ch, one of the local free newspapers, has an advice column. They have one advice person for sexual matters, one for romance. The romance one is typically “Oh, what do I do? I love my partner, but I met someone new…” 

The sex one can sound pretty personal, even though it’s published for half of Switzerland to see. 

In this case, it taught me a new word. 

“feucht” technically means humid. When it’s a muggy, hot day with a lot of humidity in the air, that’s what you call “feucht.” 

Apparently it’s also how you a describe a girl being “wet.” So in this case the person seeking advice is asking “What do I do to really make her wet?” 

The more you know, right? I might have ended up saying “nas” instead. 

I must say it rather surprised me how simple this tense is in German. Oh it can get complicated when mixed into a complicated sentence, but the principle is straightforward. 

In any case, a Future Tense is the means of any language to express something that’s going to happen that hasn’t yet. 

In English we say “I will do that” or “I’m going to do that.” 

German uses the former style of “will”: “Ich werde das machen.” 

French and Spanish, and I assume the other Latin-based languages, use the latter “going to”:  

“Je vais a faire” and “Voy a hacerlo.” 

French (and Spanish) also conjugate directly in future tense. 

“Je retournerai” - I will come back 

Indonesian, and indeed many Asian languages, never actually conjugate according to the personal pronoun or the temporal state. 

Saya sudah makan - I already ate
Kamu makan sekarang - You eat now
Anda sedang makan sekarang - You (formal) are eating now
Mereka akan makan - They will eat
Dia makan kemarin - He/She ate yesterday
Kami makan nanti - We (inclusive) eat later. 

Which really suggests that languages are mostly practical creations. They all work out somewhat similar ways of saying things. 

germannn:

Most of them are German classics or classics translated into German, so you can’t expect contemporary German in most cases. But maybe you are interested anyway. I think the audio files could at least be helpful to get used to the general sound of the language. 

Some speakers are less pleasant to listen to than others. I personally like the voice that reads Kafka’s Hungerkünstler. Just one tip. :)

P.S. If you are actually interested in this site and if you have problems to find what you are looking for, just ask. Unfortunately, the site is completely in German.

Handy.